I wish people talked more about the body-heart-mind dynamic going on within each of us. For me, learning to understand the workings of my own body-heart-mind dynamic has been an enormous help in being safe, being brave, understanding what I want and what I'm capable of, and making decisions. Body, Heart, and Mind: each part has its own particular kind of certainty/knowledge — knowledge that sometimes contradicts the knowledge of one of the other parts, which can make things interesting. If you can become conscious of them, they can be the most wonderful guides (yes, while possibly driving you crazy with their arguing). Today I'm thinking of how this relates to the stage I'm in with the thing I'm writing.

Whenever I get near the end of whatever thing I'm writing — be it a first draft, a revision, or just the resolution of a particular plot point — whenever I start to see the light at the end of whatever tunnel I'm in, I'm generally visited by a stunning sur…

I've gotten the go-ahead to announce that India-based Reliance Entertainment is developing Graceling into a movie. From this press release at Variety: "producer Deepak Nayar ('Paranoia') will oversee the project for Reliance and Kintop Pictures and will produce alongside Tabrez Noorani ('Life of Pi') of Tamasha Talkies and Leigh Ann Burton for Blu-Sky Media. British screenwriter Piers Ashworth ('Nostradamus') will write the script." Here's a USA Today mention, and one in the Wall Street Journal.

This is only the first step of many, but it's a very good start. If it makes you happy, please feel free to help us by spreading the word :). My gratitude to the entire team! I will post any news as I receive it.

And now, I would like to post about something else. (Hopefully, y'all would like to read about something else.)

For example: Sometimes in life, one finds oneself needing to make a crown.

Having accidentally stumbled upon an easy but snazzy crown formula, I thought I'd share. Supplies: felt, ribbon, needle and thread.

It didn't occur to me to take pictures in progress, but the concept is so simple that I think I can explain. That's the completed crown in the picture below. You're looking at two pieces of felt folded together lengthwise (meaning, the top edge is where the fold is happening). One, red, is about 16" x 14". The other, very dark green, is about 15" x 12". I put the green one on top of the red one, folded them both in half, and stitched them together (under the place where the ribbon would later lie) just to keep them steady. Then I lay the ribbon where I wanted it and stitched it in place. Voila.

Here in Cambridge, as in a number of nearby towns, we are generally all doing what we're told and staying inside while the search for the Boston Marathon bombings suspect continues. What a strange and difficult day. What a hard week the Boston area has had. I have been thinking a lot about the parts of the world where this kind of violence is the norm. I've been thinking about the sensationalist news media, which makes me sick. I've been thinking about the victims; the helpers working so hard to keep us safe today; and the fact that this hunt is for a nineteen-year-old. I've been thinking about a lot of things; there is too much to think about.

I love my home.

My heart goes out to those suffering, and my gratitude to all the helpers, who come in many forms. I don't have much to offer, but here is some beauty...

This email just hit my inbox. For those of you not in range of Boston's WGBH, to the best of my knowledge, you can stream it online. What better week to listen to the Boston Philharmonic perform Beethoven's 9th? The email:

Dear Friends of the Boston Philharmonic,

We
have been mourning this week with the entire Boston community over the
tragic events on Monday afternoon at the finish line of the Boston
Marathon. Our hearts go out in particular to those who were directly
injured in the attacks and the families of the victims.
As
musicians, we are grateful to be able to express our sorrow and our
hope through music. As a tribute to the victims of Monday's attacks, the Boston Philharmonic concert tomorrow (Friday, April 19), will be broadcast live from Symphony Hall on WGBH radio 99.5 at 8pm.
It
will also be rebroadcast on Sunday (rebroadcast time TBD). The program
is all Beethoven: the Coriolan Overture and Ninth Symphony, in
collaboration with Symphony Pro Musica a…

Me, reading out loud the label of the Belgian porter, Zwet.be, that I'm about to drink: "This unusual ale is the brainchild of Armand Debelder, brewer and blender of the world-famous Drie Fonteinen lambies. A Belgian Porter, brewed with wild yeasts cultured from Armand's casks of lambie." Ew! Ew! Ew!

My friend: Sweetie, might that word be "lambic"?

(Lambic: A type of beer brewed traditionally in the Pajottenland region of Belgium.)

The nasturtiums are currently hanging from the balconies in the courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and it's a breathtaking sight, so much so that when I got home from the museum, I wrote hanging nasturtiums into the courtyard of the building in my current WIP. They'll be on display until mid-April or so. (There are some lovely photos at that link.)

As I stood in the courtyard gawking -- thinking about how description often works best in books if you're able to capture the mood something creates with a few words, or maybe briefly say what it's like rather than providing lengthy and specific details about what it actually is or precisely how it looks -- my friend told me that the museum invites artists-in-residence to live in the museum and work. LUCKY DUCKS. What a dream to write in a place like that. Then we went to the tiny red concert hall with the custom-built Steinway and watched and heard pianist Paavali Jumppanen and violinist Corey Cerovsek have a…

Here are a few questions I ask myself before I hit "publish" on any blog post:Is it too personal? Will it make me feel exposed in some way? Why?Does it compromise my self-respect? How? To the best of my ability to judge, does it respect others?How recently have I blogged and how much have I been blogging recently? Why?Why do I want to blog this thing? -----> No self-deception or delusion allowed here. Whatever the real reason is, am I okay with it?What if I didn't blog this thing? What if I kept it to myself, or emailed a friend about it instead? Would that feel more peaceful and centering? Why?
For every blog post I hit "publish" on, there are probably two I delete. For every two paragraphs I leave in a blog post, there's probably one I delete. It doesn't feel like a waste of time to me, because in the writing and questioning, I organize my thoughts and learn about myself, which I dearly hope helps me move respectfully and responsibly through the …

Keeping Quiet
by Pablo Neruda
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.
This one time upon the earth,
let's not speak any language,
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be a delicious moment,
without hurry, without locomotives,
all of us would be together
in a sudden uneasiness.
The fishermen in the cold sea
would do no harm to the whales
and the peasant gathering salt
would look at his torn hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars of gas, wars of fire,
victories without survivors,
would put on clean clothing
and would walk alongside their brothers
in the shade, without doing a thing.
What I want shouldn't be confused
with final inactivity:
life alone is what matters,
I want nothing to do with death.
If we weren't unanimous
about keeping our lives so much in motion,
if we could do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would
interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
…

Today, codenames: Isis and Phoenix (age 3) asked me if I have any scary dreams. I told them (a modified version of) a scary dream I had recently. Isis patted me sympathetically on the arm and said, "Don't worry, we'll help you. We jump on people and scare away their bad dreams." The dream removal process commenced immediately without warning and was enthusiastic and heartfelt, if rather painful. It'll sure be nice not to have any more scary dreams.

***

I played a game with a bewildering series of changing rules, involving throwing a ball, singing "Pump Up the Jam" (?), and drawing exactly what I was instructed to draw on successively smaller pieces of paper, the final one of which was the size of a coconut flake and which Isis produced from her mouth. When I protested that I could not draw a scene of a cat and the Easter Bunny on an infinitesimal and soggy piece of paper, Isis declared me the winner of the game and promised me two pieces of chocolate,…

Kristin Cashore wrote the New York Times bestsellers Graceling, Fire, Bitterblue, and Jane, Unlimited. Graceling is the winner of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature and Fire is the winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award. The books are world travelers, currently scheduled to be published in thirty-four languages.

***

"Then, at last, sitting on her stretcher-bed, she took from the very bottom of her pack an old peacock-blue scarf folded around a heavy, square book. She unwrapped it and opened it very carefully, as if guilty secrets might fall from between its pages like pressed flowers. This was Harry's secret. She was a writer."

-from The Tricksters, by Margaret Mahy

Writing is my secret. Every day I unwrap and open it as carefully as I can. Welcome to my blog about writing and life! Above you'll find quick links about me and my books, and below is more about me, ways to subscribe, and an archive of past posts. Click here to go home to my most recent posts.

Finally, a note: This blog is my only online presence. I am not on Facebook, Google+, or any other social media sites, and I use Twitter mainly as an amalgamation feed for my blog. Sorry, but I do not read @-replies on Twitter!